Written by
Heather Pagano

Heather Pagano is a humanitarian advisor in MSF's Advocacy and Analysis Unit based in Belgium, with a focus on the politics of epidemic response and global health security. She joined Médecins Sans Frontières in 2008, serving as the Ebola advocacy and communication coordinator during the 2014-2015 west African epidemic, after extensive field and operations level communications experience. She has written widely on public health emergencies such as the Ebola epidemic and the South Sudan conflict, and most recently served as a communications expert for the 2015 bombing of the MSF Kunduz Trauma Centre in Afghanistan.

The size and scale of the 2014-16 West African Ebola epidemic sent shockwaves throughout the world. In late summer 2014, television screens beamed disturbing images of people dying in the streets and desperate health workers pleading for more help. Yet...